A mysterious, glimmering white spot found on the dwarf
planet Ceres by a NASA spacecraft has researchers scratching their heads. The
white blotch on Ceres is clearly visible in a sequence of recent photos captured
on Jan. 13 by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. NASA's Dawn spacecraft is rapidly
approaching the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter. But when the final photo issued on Monday (Jan. 19), the Dawn
researchers gave no clue of what the white dot might be.The recent
images display regions of light and dark on the face of Ceres, which show
surface landscapes like craters. But right now, none of the specific features
can be determined, counting the white spot. Ceres is a distinctive object in
our solar system. It is the biggest object in the asteroid belt and is categorized
as an asteroid. It is at the same time categorized as a dwarf planet and at 590
miles across (950 kilometers). Ceres is the smallest identified dwarf planet in
the entire solar system.

A strange white spot can be observed in the recent photos
from NASA's Dawn space telescope, which is on its way towards the dwarf planet.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI

The $466 million Dawn spacecraft is projected to move into the
orbit around Ceres on March 6. Dawn left Earth’s orbit in 2007 and in the
summer of 2011, it completed a year-long pit stop at the asteroid Vesta, the
second biggest body in the asteroid belt. While Vesta shared several properties
with our solar system's inner planets, researchers with the Dawn mission doubt
that Ceres has more in common with the outer most planets. 25 percent of Ceres'
mass is believed to be composed of water, which indicates the space rock comprises
even more water than Earth. Researchers have observed water vapor trails blowing
up off the surface of Ceres, which may erupt from volcano-like ice springs.

The mysterious white spot caught by the Dawn probe is one another
questioning feature of this already interesting object.